The Evidence to Action (E2A) Project based at the University of Melbourne, Centre for Cities, hosted a Global Evidence Building and Learning Workshop on the 22nd and 23rd of November 2023. This two-day event led by the E2A Project Team was held at the University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus in a hybrid format. It brought together the E2A Project stakeholders including practitioners, academic scholars, and other strategic partners for a multi-sectoral and interdisciplinary dialogue.
The E2A Project is a Fondation Botnar initiative set up to enable meta-learning across its projects in intermediary cities to reimagine evidence building approaches and practices within their Cities portfolio. The University of Melbourne, Centre for Cities is Fondation Botnar’s knowledge management partner in this project, and home to the E2A Project Team.
The event brought together strategic stakeholders of this initiative to discuss and review the overall program roll-out strategy and operational guidance developed by the E2A Team from the learnings of the Evidence to Action test & pilot phase (2021-2022).
The objectives of the E2A Global Evidence Building and Learning Workshop were to:
- Build shared understanding on evidence, its importance and participatory evidence building processes as outlined in the E2A Conceptual Framework and Practitioner’s Guide.
- Consider and discuss the diverse E2A implementation approaches from the field and explore emerging research questions from the practice.
- Build shared understanding on Fondation Botnar's SLE approach focusing on systemic inquiry and identify synergies and gaps.
- Develop a set of recommendations and collective agreement on aspirational goals for Domains of Change and identify research and learning themes.
- Consider a governance structure for the Evidence to Action Framework implementation and the terms of references for the various roles and responsibilities.
Outcomes of this workshop were:
- Collective understanding and agreement regarding the implementation of the E2A framework as per E2A Practitioner’s Guide and operational guidance.
- Agreement on a phased approach to implementation including project readiness assessment, knowledge products and communication strategy, governance structure, and formation of community of practice.
- Collective agreement on a set of goals to frame urban change through the E2A lens for youth wellbeing in intermediary cities.
Stephanie Butcher, Sheffield University
Stephanie is a Lecturer in the Department of Geography at Sheffield University, and Director of the BA Global Sustainable Development Programme. Her research interests focus on global development and social justice - examining the production of inequalities within urban planning and practice, and the collective practices through which peripheralized groups mobilise against uneven development. She is the Principal Investigator on the research project 'Co-Constructing Neighborhoods for Diverse Young People: Civic Media Technologies for Equitable Urban Governance'.
Theresia Kinanti Dewi, Hivos (Yayasan Humanis dan Inovasi Sosial)
Theresia or Trisi, is the Linking, Learning, Monitoring & Evaluation, and Communications Officer for the Urban Futures program -- a program funded by Fondation Botnar that seeks to ensure meaningful youth participation in creating climate-resilient and sustainable urban food systems. Through the years she worked in various programs, from emergency response to agriculture. For past several years, she has been working with youth and their communities, exploring their passion to be involved and make a difference in their communities. In her current role, she continues this work as part of the Urban Futures program team.
Natalia Borrero Guerrero, Fundación Corona
Natalia is the Planning and Learning Lead at Fundación Corona. She is a political scientist with 14 years of experience in the social sector, 9 of them focused on strategic planning, design of social initiatives, and follow-up of M&E processes. Recently, leads the definition and implementation of learning agendas and supports the design and implementation of initiatives aiming for systemic change.
Susanna Hausmann-Muela, Fondation Botnar
Susanna is the Cities Portfolio Lead at Fondation Botnar. She leads the strategic development and implementation of programmes that improve city systems for young people. She holds a PhD in Epidemiology, a Master in Medical Anthropology and an Executive MBA in Non-Profit Management. For over 25 years, Susanna has worked in health and wellbeing, with long field stays in Tanzania and Mexico, working on community perspectives and participation, bringing the community voice into policy and planning. She has extensive experience in teaching and practice in implementation science, multisectoral approaches, and mixed methods.
Marcus Jenal, Fondation Botnar
Marcus is the Strategic Learning & Evaluation Lead at Fondation Botnar. He has a background in Environmental Sciences from ETH Zurich. In his previous role, Marcus was a partner at Mesopartner; he supported organisations, programmes and projects in the design, inception and implementation of systemic change initiatives. He has also been building knowledge in complex systems theory and other relevant scientific fields through various training and research engagements. He has actively engaged in conceptual work on systemic approaches, improving projects’ design, delivery, monitoring, and evaluation. At Fondation Botnar, he coordinates the foundation’s efforts to learn about and improve its effectiveness in the areas of engagement.
Juana Leal, Despacio
Juana is an architect with an MsC in Urban Planning and Policy Design. A practitioner, with 12 years experience in the public and private sectors, in projects that cover different scales of work, at the regional and local levels. Specifically, 9 years leading multidisciplinary groups and coordinating projects of technical and political complexity that involve designing methodologies, multiple stakeholders and community engagement strategies. Currently, is the Healthy Cities lead at Despacio, where she manages the Vivo mi Calle project from the HCA Phase II programme.
Rebecca Liony, Pamflet Generasi
Rebecca works with Pamflet Generasi as the Coordinator of Youth Activism Division. Her work is focused upon regeneration of activism in youth through capacity building. With a bachelor's degree in Psychology and five years of experience in development and activism, Rebecca’s previous works include program management in the issue of gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, and social inclusion. Her focus on youth issues started in 2017 when Rebecca worked on developing pilot project of male counseling at the juvenile correctional facility. She then led specific research on youth’s perspectives from 2018-2023.
Cynthia Maharani, WRI Indonesia
Cynthia is a seasoned social scientist who specializes in forestry policy and governance, gender social inclusion, climate adaptation, and resilience. She currently leads the Gender, Equity, and Social Inclusion Program for WRI Indonesia, overseeing the integration of GESI into the organization's programs on energy, low carbon, and resilient cities, climate, forest, and land use. She holds a master's degree in public policy from Oregon State University and has worked with numerous organizations across various sectors, including non-profits and research institutes.
Ana María Navia Peláez, WRI Colombia
Ana María is the Healthy Cities Manager in the WRI Colombia office, and a part of the Vivo mi Calle project. She is responsible for the public policy and alliances in the project. She is a political scientist, passionate about understanding the power dynamics that shape planning decisions for cities and regions. Ana brings over 10 years of experience in the public and private sectors, working on public policy formulation, mid-size city planning processes, technical advice, and leading participatory processes and governance analyses. She holds a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from Portland State University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Universidad de los Andes.
Estefany Peña Rojas, Universidad EAFIT
Estefany is the Coordinator of the Integrated Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Team (iMEL) at Universidad EAFIT for the S2Cities program. She holds a Master's in Economics, specializing in economic development and public policy. With a wealth of experience, Estefany has served as a consultant for various institutions such as the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF) and the International Development Research Center (IDRC). Her areas of expertise include economic development, impact evaluation, and project monitoring and evaluation using mixed methods approaches. Estefany is actively involved in the implementation of the E2A Framework within the S2Cities program, which covers six cities globally across Colombia, Ecuador, Indonesia and Philippines.
Kathryn Scurfield, Ecorys UK
Kathryn is an Associate Director at Ecorys UK. She currently acts as the Programme Director and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Lead for the Healthy Cities for Adolescents Phase-II programme. Kathryn has over 14 years of experience in MEL and implementing projects across a range of social policy areas throughout East Africa and Southeast Asia. She has worked with a variety of stakeholders including the UK Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI), the European Commission, USAID, Global Affairs Canada, various social enterprises philanthropic organisations, and NGOs.
Jaya Srinivasan, Ennovent, India
Jaya possesses over 13 years of experience across business development, project implementation, and programme management in social impact. As Senior Manager (Projects) at Ennovent, she works primarily with urban youth wellbeing programmes, contributing to management and implementation. She provides design, operational guidance, and implementation support to the Evidence to Action program in India. She holds an MA in International Relations from the University of Sussex and a B Tech in Computer Science & Engineering from ANITS, Andhra University.
Kalpana Viswanath, Safetipin
Kalpana is the co-founder and CEO of Safetipin, a social enterprise that uses technology and data to advocate for safe urban spaces for women in more than 25 cities in India and globally. She led the Safe Delhi program for Jagori in close collaboration with the Delhi government to help build programs to address women’s safety. Kalpana has also been a consultant for UN Women and UN-Habitat on issues of gender and urban safety and she is a member of the Advisory Group on Gender Issues (AGGI) at UN-Habitat, a Board member of SLOCAT (a global network on sustainable mobility), the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC), and the Executive Committee Chair for Jagori, a leading Indian feminist non-profit organisation.
This Evidence to Action Global Evidence Building and Learning Workshop is presented by the Melbourne Centre for Cities at the University of Melbourne, supported by Fondation Botnar.